‘Serial’ Is Back, and Is Now on Sonos

There’s a new season of Serial upon us … and Sarah Koenig’s calming voice can now fill your home through your Sonos speakers.

The groundbreaking and hyper-popular podcast has returned for its second season, with the first episode dropping in somewhat stealth fashion on December 10. This season’s format remains the same, but the stakes are much higher as it will document the case of Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. Army soldier who may or may not have deserted before being captured by the Taliban and held captive for five years before being part of a prisoner swap in 2014. At first, it was reason for celebration … but it was a brief one, as the reasons for his capture raised a whole lot of questions. The case is perfect for Serial because of all of the shades of grey, mysterious characters sure to emerge and unanswered questions that remain, this season has been anticipated basically since the final seconds of the final season one podcast.

So how can you listen on your Sonos? You can download the podcast and listen to it via your phone through Sonos, play it via Stitcher — or, a new medium for season two, Serial is being broadcast through Pandora. All you have to do is add Serial to your stations from within the Pandora app, and it will then appear on your Pandora account via the Sonos app. They’ve chopped up the format of the show to play in shorter clips as opposed to one long podcast, so if that’s a better format for you, you’re in luck.

If you didn’t listen to the first season of Serial, or maybe you’ve never heard of it, fear not. The internet went bananas over it, and thanks to resources like Reddit’s /r/serialpodcast thread, diving right in is easy. If you want to skip the first season and dive straight into the second, this article from NPR will set you up nicely.

The Bergdahl case has political consequences far and wide, and in many ways is a massive step up in terms of subject matter and visibility for the show. The podcast’s first season riveted its listeners by detailing the case of Syed, who has been in prison for more than a decade after being found guilty the 1999 murder of his then-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Throughout the podcast, though, the details, minutae and personalities involved in the case brought up many questions as to whether or not Adnan was — or even logistically could be — guilty of the crime. Thanks in large part to the podcast, his case is now being revisited by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.